In Syria, Khalid* and his family were self-sufficient. Then war changed everything. Attacks on their village sent them fleeing to a neighboring country. The family walked day and night, in freezing cold and rain, for four days. They were welcomed in Jordan and given warm clothes, but they had no way to make new lives for themselves.

Mabinti’s husband has died and all her children are dead. She lives alone, separated, waiting to die herself. Mabinti has AIDS. She has no one to care for her; no one to talk to at the end of the day; no one to sit and pray with her as she deals with a disease that will eventually take her life. She has often asked herself, “Why have I been allowed to live, even though I am sick and have been moved here to die?”

Parbati’s family lives in a crowded slum. Spread over an acre, the population of this slum is nearly 5,000. Parbati lives in a two-room shack with her mother, an aunt and a married sister and her family.

Farming is an act of faith. Farmers must cultivate soil, put seed in the ground and protect crops from bugs and disease while also completely depending on the sun and the rain. All of this is very hard work, and it’s stressful and uncertain.